The most promising applications for psychedelics are studied in conjunction with intensive therapy sessions before, during, and after the psychedelic dose.
The problem is that too many people read this articles and conclude that the drug is doing all the work, ignoring the rigorous therapy that surrounds the psychedelic dosing in all of the clinical studies.
My point was that taking LSD in your basement alone is not 1:1 equivalent to the clinical research that uses LSD as an ingredient in a structured therapy program. Even this article explains LSD use in the context of therapy. Yet people read these articles and assume that LSD operates as a standalone wonder drug.
I'm unconvinced a therapists supervision is the "secret sauce". Yet there are many many reports even before recent studies that having a "sitter" or "shaman" type was essential and the presence of a therapist just seems like a medicalization of that principle.
That advice was an overly broad crock and some of the most promising applications of psychadelics are for treating things like treatment resistant depression.
In regards to always having a sitter I do think there is a ton of temptation to forgo this step yet I think the drug is simultaneously less effective and more dangerous if you forgo this step. Still I rarely hear anybody fail to stress the importance of a sitter.